


The Kids Aren't Alright

by SaintDeanThomas



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Character Bonding, Family Dynamics, Gen, Multi, Post canon, character exploration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-05 14:03:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11579556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintDeanThomas/pseuds/SaintDeanThomas
Summary: To better understand Casper High's A listers  up to the series end and even afterwards, it's important to look at who they are and what they've been through, rather it be together or as individuals, and that's what we're here to do, people.





	1. The Wolf Among Us

Sophomore year had been rougher than Kwan had expected. Between football, basketball and a general disinterest, his grades had began slipping faster than ever. It wasn't that he couldn't do the work, it was more that his focus was going all the place recently and his parents weren't exactly understanding of his recent drift. They'd been discussing options for their problem child more frequently around him -with his mom favoring the military option and his dad partial to shipping him off to California to stay with his aunt and uncle- but it was his little brother who had the simple solution of getting him a tutor.

"What about Star," he'd suggested when the topic popped up over breakfast, "she's top five in our class and we already know each other?" Of all his friends, his parents disliked her the least so he figured it was his best chance of keeping some semblance of normal in his life. Unfortunately, his mother dismissed idea quickly.

"Nice try, but with a pretty girl like that around you'd never get any real studying done, gom."

"Ma," he said, pushing his eggs around the plate while hiding his burning face, "you know we're not dating anymore."

"With your grades I can see why not," his dad cut in, "a smart girl like that sees you're on a broken cart with a lame ass pulling you."

"It was a mutual breakup!"

Casually dismissing his son's defenses with a scoff, Liang Danh went back to reading his paper, leaving Kwan without an ally at the table except for possibly his brother, who was easier bought than reasoned with lately. His feeling of isolation wasn't helped by the fact that Jiayi, his mother, was looking at him as if he were made of glass. Liang Shan Kwan was outnumbered and outranked, betrayed by his own family over the most important meal of the day. "Fine," he conceded, quickly forming a plan, "what about Tucker... y'know, Tucker Foley? Remember, you guys saw how well we did on that science project before and I can honestly tell you that I had maybe fifteen percent to do with that grade-"

"Fifteen?"

"See, the guy's a miracle worker!"

Waiting as his parents had a silent conversation with their eyes, Kwan began impatiently tapping his foot. If they went for this then he could keep at least some semblance of a normal life while he attempted to bring up his C- average, he and Tucker were at least sort of friends in his eyes, and if they didn't, well... California was supposed to be nice this time of year at least.

“Okay,” his mother said, sharing one last look with his father, “you can have the Foley boy try to help you save this school year...”

“There’s a but coming,” his brother said, not looking up from his game.

“But-” his father cut in, smirking at their youngest child, “if Tucker can’t somehow turn lead into gold in the next two weeks, then I suggest Xue get used to being an only child.”

“Ohhh, does this mean I get his room too?”

_ Traitor _ , Kwan thought, mentally willing his brother’s game to die in spite.

With the agreement settled, the family finished breakfast relatively quickly before Danh and Xue headed out into the rain. Waving the two off, Kwan went to help his mom with the dishes before he left for school. Noting that she still didn’t look too convinced about his future, he thought that one more round of reassurance was necessary.

“Ma,” he began, “I’m gonna do better I promise, you don’t need to worry so much.”

“I know you can, gom,” she said, her smile not extending to her eyes, “but there’s just so much happening lately I’m worried you’re going to think it easier to just drop out and become a-”

“Delinquent like your cousin, Lao” 

Kwan had heard the speech so often that they finished the sentence together with him mocking his mother’s tone. “I promise that if I ever drop out,” he said, setting the last plate on the drying rack and grabbing his keys, “I’ll get all the delinquent tips I can from Lao.”

Jiayi’s response to the taunt was to grab a kiwi from the fruit bowl and throw it at her son. She figured a soft fruit was both a nutritious snack for later and a warning not to mock your mother for caring about you.

Catching the fruit with surprising delicacy, Kwan slipped it into his pocket and kissed his mom on the forehead before heading out the door to his hand me down pickup truck. As he noticed the sky growing heavy with clouds, he hurried onto the back road that lead out of their property and into the main city to beat the morning traffic. He was halfway down the road when a large shadow cut out in front of him, causing him to swerve off the road in panic and veer towards the treeline. Getting out to check for damage,Kwan sighed in relief before looking around in panic as he searched for the cause of his off road misadventure. 

“C’mon,” he yelled, his eyes darting around the trees, “no dumb animal is getting me sent to military school!”

When nothing responded to his challenge, Kwan started to return to his idling pickup but was stopped by a faded bundle of red fabric catching his attention. Picking it up, he was stopped from thinking on it too much by the sound of thunder unzipping the sky to dump a torrential downpour on the city, forcing him to sprint back to his truck and gun it the rest of the way to Casper High.

* * *

 

Arriving on time -if slightly damp- Kwan shoved his bag into his locker and turned to make his way to class. Halfway down the hall, he was surprised by Danny running into him and grabbed him on reflex, his nerves still fried from that morning. “Whoa, Fentonmeister,” he said, lowering the runner back onto the ground, “where’s the fire dude?”

As if on queue, the fire, in the form of Dash Baxter, rounded the corner and stormed his way towards the two of them.

“Good work, Kwan,” Dash said, winding his arm in anticipation of violence, “Fentoni alfredo here tried to skip out on his morning payment and you know how I feel about that.”

Rolling his eyes while Dash focused on glaring at Danny, Kwan clapped his hands onto his shoulders and slightly tightened his grip. “I got this one, bro,” Kwan said, putting on his best mencing face, “something scratched my truck this morning and I need to vent a little.”

Nodding his understanding and turning with a satisfied grin, Dash took off down the hall in search of another victim. Both visibly relaxing as they watched him disappear from sight, Kwan released Danny and took a moment to brush the wrinkles he’d made out of his shirt.

“Thanks,” Danny said, picking up his backpack from where it fell, “but you know eventually he’s gonna find out that you don’t actually like hurting me for sport, right?”

He was right of course, and the fact that Kwan had never actively hurt Danny for fun -on command maybe, but never for  _ his _ fun- wasn’t exactly a new thing. In fact, although they would never say it, almost everyone in Casper High knew that if you had to deal with anyone from the football team, Kwan was the best guy to run into. Sure, there was no doubt that he had enjoyed the perks that the bully aesthetic had provided, but to him violence was best saved for the football field where people could have fun with it. If anything, Kwan secretly wished that he could just have more normal friends instead of being a social guinea pig for the new trends, but he would never say it out loud. Of course, Star knew, she had been his confidant since middle school, but he still couldn’t help but think about branching out more.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Kwan placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder, partly in a gesture of friendship and partially to keep him from running off. “I need Foley,” he said, keeping his instructions as simple as possible so they could both get on with their day, “tell him to meet me in the library during free period, I’ve got a job for him.”

Nodding his understanding, Danny prepared to make his exit but Kwan still held him firm.”Oh, and try to get some more sleep, dude, you’re like the world’s twitchiest zombie lately and it’s freaking me out.” 

Cracking a smile,  Danny gave him a mock salute before he turned off into Lancer’s class.

Later, as he waitined in the library, Kwan found himself getting more and more anxious. What if Tucker couldn’t help him, what if he wouldn’t help him? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of thunder blasting through the library, the storm outside apparently keeping track with his emotions.. Turing to look out the windows, Kwan was surprised when he saw Tucker standing beside him, especially since as far as he knew he hadn’t heard the door open.

“Hey,” Tuck said, sill dripping wet as if he’d stepped right into the library from the storm, “what’s up?”

“Bro! Don't just...pop in like that, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Looking him over, Kwan couldn’t figure out what was bothering him so much until he noticed that Tucker wasn’t wearing his signature red beanie. Shrugging the minor weirdness off, he began to make his pitch, which he concluded by emphasizing that if he got shipped out of state then Dash would go from unbearable to unbelievably insufferable. Once all his cards were on the table, he looked at Tucker with as much hope as he could manage, and since no one else was around he could be patient as he needed.

“Yeah sure I’ll help you, dude… standard fee of course”

Unable to contain himself, Kwan picked Tucker up and squeezed him into an impromptu hug. “Oh man! You won’t regret this , dude, I swear!”

“Regret,: Tucker choked out, desperate for air, “what…. never.” 

With that, Kwan went through the rest of his day relatively normally, with the exception of a small chemical fire at the end of the day. After the final bell dismissed them, he ran into Dash who told him that practice was cancelled because the field was too flooded. 

“Can you believe that,” he growled, slumping onto the locker beside Kwan’s, “it's just some stupid water! Now what am I supposed to do with this pent up aggression?”

“I don’t know man,” Kwan responded, shrugging into his jacket even and pulling out his keys, “batting cages maybe?”

“Whoa, dude, did you hog Fenton and Foley this morning? That’s just greedy.”

Momentarily confused, Kwan looked down to see that, along with his keys, he’d also pulled out the red fabric wad he had found beside his truck that morning, which was in fact Tucker’s missing beret. Mentally flashing back to the shadow that cut him off, he loosened his grip on the faded cap and fumbled it back into his packet to process later. Meanwhile, Dash continued complaining about the day, despite the fact that Kwan had long since stopped listening in order to search the crowded hallway for some trace of Tucker of either of his friends.

“-too long you’ll get, like, geek lice of something.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got you,” Kwan said, halfheartedly nodding and waving Dash off once he spotted Sam’s ponytail bobbing above the crowd, “hey I’ll catch you later man, I gotta go do something for my mom, text me later.”

Before he could respond, Kwan took off down the hall, dodging and shoving incoming students to get to Sam before he lost sight of her.

“We better see moves like that on the field tomorrow, Ling!” 

Stopping temporarily to correct the pronunciation of his surname for the hundredth time, he returned to his pursuit just in time to see Sam pause to talk to some girl with a clipboard about some new ‘save the whatever’ cause. As he jogged up to catch her, he noticed a shimmer of movement just out of his line of sight. Too distracted to stop, he found himself colliding with her as well as taking out the poor bystander as well.

“Kwan,” she growled, thankfully having landed on the grass beside the pavement, “I know you’re bummed practice is cancelled and all but do I look like a tackling dummy to you?”

“Sorry, sorry! I was just trying to see if you knew where Foley disappeared to. He’s supposed to be tutoring me for the next test.”

Offering her a hand up, he winced slightly as she squeezed a patch of skin he’d unknowingly scraped on the concrete during their tumble. On top of that, he was caught off guard by just how rough her hands were,  which should’ve been expected given how much time he knew she spent gardening, after all she had spent three solid weeks lobbying Lancer to give her control of the old greenhouses until he relented.

_ Focus, gom, _ his mother’s voice echoed in his head,  _ back on task. _

“So, have you seen him?”

“He told us he had something to work on and then took off,” she said, fixing her skirt and making sure clipboard girl was alright, “sorry, big guy.”

Giving up, Kwan apologised again for knocking them over then made his way to the student parking lot, too tired and too hungry to keep up his search for now. Nearly reaching his truck, he froze into place as he noticed a low growl rumbling across the parking lot. Figuring another stray dog had found its way into the parking lot, he prepared to sprint the remaining distance to avoid an unnecessary chase. However, before he could convince himself to move, he was distracted by another glimpse of movement, this time quick enough to be able to make out a general shape, which he quickly figured out was far too large to be a dog. Once again taking up a defensive position, he slowly began moving forward, deciding very quickly that sudden movements weren’t the best decision in this situation. Carefully grabbing the handle of his pickup, he let out a sharp hiss as he pulled back and the loud release mechanism sounded.

“Fu-”

Almost immediately the creature was on him. Sharply inhaling as the air left his lungs on impact, Kwan could only stare in horror as a large snout began sniffing him up and down. Taking note of the creature, he saw that his fears of a dog weren’t completely unfounded, as the thing that had him pinned down was undeniably canine, even if the offender was the size of a prizefighter and wearing a torn assortment of something resembling clothing. Looking into the beast’s eyes, Kwan had a terrifying moment of realization as the word finally entered his mind;  _ werewolf. _

He shouldn’t have been surprised really, with the amount of weird things wandering around Amity Park it was only a matter of time before something worse than ghosts showed up to torment the people. No longer content with sniffing him, the wolf reared back and swung his clawed hands over Kwan’s midsection, tearing his jacket open and leaving him with strange wet feeling on his abdomen. As his astonishment at the situation turned back into fear and his fear into anger, Kwan made a fist and yelled as he swung at his assailant, determined to go out fighting. Unfortunately, his punch was only met with cool September air that carried him over into a sitting position, followed by the discovery that he was now alone.

Breathing heavily, he nervously looked down to examine the damage that he’d received only to be met with a sticky green substance staining his shirt. Confused but relieved, he raised the stain to his nose to better identify it. He had seen similar smears before after ghost attacks around town, but the familiar smell threw him off just enough to pique his curiosity, and when he couldn’t quite place it on scent, he went with his other method of figuring out stains… he tasted it.

“It’s… kiwi?”

Once he was sure he hadn’t been injured other than his fall and his adrenaline had begun to fade, Kwan pulled himself up and sat inside his truck. Lamenting his ruined jacket, he once again let his confusion overtake him. Not only was it broad daylight- if a little cloudy, but there wasn’t supposed to be a full moon for another few days, so why were werewolves running around parking lots ruining people’s outfits then running off? Suddenly he found himself wishing that Star was there with him. She was better at thinking things through than he was, and in a case like this there was definitely a few things to think about now. If it weren’t Friday, he figured that there would have been at least one witness to help him prove he wasn’t completely losing it, but with it being the end of the week and a day without practice, the only people around were the weirdos who smoked behind the school just out of view, and Kwan, who only started parking way back in the lot because he saw a family of rabbits a few months ago and wanted to be closer to it, so this was gonna be a weird one.

Thinking about the rabbit, he instinctively felt a twinge of guilt at the idea that his assailant had filled up on bunnies before he’d shown up and his luck had been their misfortune. Shaking the thought away, Kwan pulled out his phone to call Tucker and ask if tonight was a good night to start their tutoring, knowing good and well he needed all the help he could get. Just as he was about to hit call, a noise made him duck under the dashboard, his nerves still frayed from the attack. Peeping out slightly, Kwan was relieved to see it was only Tucker wandering out from the walking path, but his relief was short-lived when he noticed that he was wearing his red beret again, not that that was anything suspicious of course… except for the green slime he was cleaning off of it was the twin to the pulpy mess currently staining Kwan’s shirt, meaning there was only one place it could have come from. Slowly reaching into his shredded jacket, Kwan was unsurprised to find that except for fruit debris, his pocket had been emptied. Visibly shaking, it was a while before he actually decided to start his truck, the pieces of the day falling together in what he believed to be undeniable proof.

“Well,” he said, nervously laughing as he pulled out of the parking lot, “I hear California’s supposed to be nice this time of year at least.”


	2. Beta

Kwan knew he looked rough, but the surprise on Toni Collins’s face when she opened the door the morning after his werewolf encounter told him that the last sixteen hours had been more or a struggle than he thought. “Kwan,” she said, looking around for whatever had apparently chased him to their front door, “I know we joked that you’d come running back... but have some self control, man.”

“Hey, Toni,” Kwan responded, shuffling awkwardly at the door, “is Star up yet?”

“CC!” Toni called, making her voice as shrill and high as possible in a mockery of her sister, “did you order Chinese for breakfast?”

“Just invite him in, dick!” she called back, her voice carrying the annoyance of a familiar routine.

Stepping aside to let him in, Toni gave a slight bow and rolled his eyes in the direct the command had come from “The princess will see you now.”

“Uh, thanks...ma’am.”

Walking around her into the house, Kwan gave Toni an awkward wave as he went to search for her sister. He was always surprised by how different Star was from Toni. Even though she was three years older, Toni had capped of her growth spurt shortly before Star did, putting her at a slight height disadvantage.which was a constant issue between them. Other than that, while Star was a social butterfly, Toni had apparently  sped through her Casper High tenure without ever going to a single social event, claiming that too much contact with too many other people was “a waste of energy.” Of course, this wasn’t to say that Toni was cold-hearted, but rather she was just an outsider oky with being way on the outside while her little sister occupied the spotlight. She was, in her own words; “the weird sister who might be a witch, it’s a possibility.” 

“Kwan,” a voice called, cheerful despite the early morning, “it’s been awhile, how the heck ya been, son?”

Veering into the kitchen area to complete his round of hellos, Kwan spotted the majority of the Collins clan sitting around the breakfast bar while a lean man with salt and pepper hair made eggs. Giving polite waves all around, Kwan spotted Star dragging bits of pancake around her plate while her dad complained about the current state of banking. Smiling at him despite his rough appearance, she motioned for him to take a seat between her and Toni- who had just come back into the room- while Aaron, their older brother lazily watched TV in the background.

“Omelette?” The chef began, sliding the contents of their skillet onto a plate and sliding it down the bar. “Gotta keep that protein intake up if the Ravens are gonna have any hope for a good season this year.”

Never one to turn down a free meal, Kwan happily accepted the plate and prepared to dig in. “Sweet! Thanks Mr. Collins!”

“Please,” he said, going back to work on the stove with a satisfied grin on his face, “Mr. Collins is my husband.”

“Never gets old, dad.” Aaron said, shoving a strip of bacon into his mouth and leaving the room. 

“Don’t encourage him.”

“Too late,” Star said, pushing all her uneaten bits onto Kwan’s plate, an old habit from their relationship which he was happy to continue, “far far too late.”

“So what brings you by, big guy?”

“Hmm,” he said,looking up from his breakfast halfway through, “oh, uh, grades aren’t looking good for this semester so I needed a little help studying.”

It wasn’t a total lie, and considering that everyone in the room knew that Star was Casper’s secret genius, Kwan knew that the story would check out for now. Zoning out as Mr. Collins went into his stereotypical ‘my child’s so great’ speech, he thought about just how odd Star was in terms of the social circle. Cierra “Star” Collins was probably the smartest person he knew, but she couldn’t care less about letting other people know that. Instead, she was all about fashion and status, clawing her way to the top of the ladder through good looks and a finger on the pulse. She wasn’t necessarily an ice queen, in fact she was one of the most loyal people he’d ever met and once she was your friend she’d probably kill someone for you with enough motive, but she had still been spoiled by popularity enough to be ruthless without provocation and hungry for a higher status.

“Will!” A voice called down from upstairs, accompanied by heavy footsteps. “We’ve got to be at the airport in an hour, are you ready?”

Walking into the kitchen, Star’s other father greeted the assembled masses with an awkward wave as he fumbled with his tie. “Morning family...and large tired boy who dated my daughter?”

“Morning Mr. Collins, business trip?”

Sighing, Kenneth Collins grabbed a the last plate from his husband and examined it as if counting the exact seconds it would take to cram it into his mouth before running out the door. “Not just a business trip, a week long consultation with a client in Greece, and if my  _ partner  _ wasn’t trying to be Bobby Flay and would get dressed, we could be closing one of our biggest deals yet.”

“Bobby Flay over-salts his eggs,” Will responded, whipping off his apron to reveal his perfectly ironed dress shirt and pants underneath, “and I’ve been dressed for the last two hours,  _ partner. _ ”

“Great, now we’ve…”

“Just got to wait for the cab, the bags are packed, the girls are indifferent to us and Aaron’s leaving after he clears out our pantry, right son?”

Stopping with an armful of boxes, Aaron looked over at everyone gathered in the kitchen and shrugged. “Star’s got a boy over and Toni’s...well, still a mess, but me taking your mac and cheese should be low priority, old man.”

Suddenly the center of the three Collins’ men attention, Kwan nervously cleared his plate. “I’m just here to compare notes, sir,” he said, looking at Ken with his best neutral smile, “after all, we broke up, remember?”

“Besides,” Toni cut in, speaking up for the first time, “it’s obvious he was using her to get closer to me.”

This sent Aaron and Star into a fit of matching laughter that seemed to disarm the natural dad instincts that had taken over. Waving at their children as they left, Ken and Will Collins reminded them to not destroy the house and told them they’d see them in a week (assuming they didn’t destroy the house before then).

“Oh, one more thing,” Will said, stopping to look in one more time, “be careful. If the property rates weren’t so low in this damned city we’d probably be gone... but then again Amity’s a great place for business so who knows. Lord willing just avoid the Fenton’s getting involved, we’re already the ‘gay dad’ house thanks to that bitch Shannon, we don’t need ghosts in the mix.”

Shortly after seeing her parents off, Kwan followed Star up to her room and shut the door, much to the ambivalence of her remaining sibling. Collapsing onto her bed to the protest of Pedro, the family terrier, he took his shredded jacket out of his bookbag and tossed it to her.

“Cool,” she said observing the tears along the bottom, “distressed is making a huge comeback so this should totally score you style points.”

“Seriously? Wait, no, that’s not the point.”

“It’s not?”

“No, I got jumped in the parking lot yesterday and whatever did it did  _ that _ to my jacket”

“Bummer….can I have it? Ghost attack wear is super hot.”

“No! Listen, I don’t think it was a ghost that did it...I think… it was  _ Foley _ .”

He whispered the last word partially because it was the first time he was saying it out loud and partially because his paranoia had taken over and he was unsure who could be listening. Sitting up from her bean bag chair, Star narrowed her eyes and focused him down.

“Wait… are you saying Foley, Tucker Foley, attacked you? But he’s so…  _ Foley _ ?! What’d you do to piss him off that much?!”

Slightly offended, Kwan stopped playing with Pedro and folded his arms. “Nothing! I asked him to tutor me for the next quiz and he seemed cool with it. I mean, I think I accidentally stole his hat-”

“His cute little beret?”

Kwan sometimes forgot that Tucker had a brief relationship with Star during the social tsunami where Paulina had started dating Danny Fenton. He wonder if he knew too.

“-yeah. But I mean that’s not a reason to try to kill me, right? Plus there was no full moon and that’s still trippin me out.”

“Well I mean, wait… why would the moon have anything to do with this? And what do you mean you ‘think’ it was Foley? If you got attacked by somebody and he had motive…”

“See, that’s why I brought you the jacket, so you don’t think I’m crazy when I explain, cause I’m not crazy, alright? I know a werewolf when I see one and even if it sounds-”

“A werewolf?”

“Don’t look at me like me like that,” he said, taking time to scratch behind Pedro’s ears while still trying to look serious. Something about the scratches on the jacket were causing the tiny dog to growl as he beat the fabric around with his paws, which he counted as another check in the ‘is Tucker Foley secretly a werewolf’ poll.

Holding up her hands in defense, Star grabbed a vial of nail polish and began applying a fresh coat. “Okay, so you think Foley’s a monster, why does this involve me? Either man up and confront him or shake down Fenton for more information. For that matter, why not just get Dash to help you with this little witch hunt?”

The thought had occurred to him, but then he had also come to the conclusion that either Dash would laugh at him and his social life would be ruined, or he’d believe him and he’d try to provoke a response out of Tucker, a thought Kwan found equally unpleasant given Dash’s tendency to take things too far. The option to get information from Danny was probably out too. Despite his small size, Fenton seemed to tolerate their bullying more than he was actually afraid of them, even less so in situations where they tried to pick on his friends. Plus, with how close Danny and Tucker were, chances were pretty good that he was in on the conspiracy too, and that would mean he’d let Foley know they were on to him which would make Kwan a loose end to tie up. Kwan really didn’t want to be a loose end.

“You’re smarter than me,” he began, “and if he does  _ that _ for some dumb hat, imagine what he’d do to me if i blew his cover, so I need a plan. Ugggg, this sucks! I just wanted to pass a stupid quiz!”

“Well if you’d just asked me for notes you wouldn’t be in this situation, so ya know, there’s that.”

“My parents thought you’d distract me”

“Duh,  I’m like stupid pretty but-”

“Plus I’m supposed to call them when I meet up with Tucker to study tonight, they want to hear him to make sure I’m not off 'making trouble.’”

“Hmm, that bites. So what, you want me to tag along with you on your date with a werewolf?”

Kwan felt his face turn hot at the word date, though he wasn’t sure why. “It’s not a date, thatld be gay, dude.”

“Yes Kwan because that was the part of the sentence to focus on.”

“Sorry, this is just… a lot. First ghosts, then that creepy hospital, now werewolves, this town keeps finding new ways to be some trashy horror movie.”

Puffing on her nails and admiring her handiwork, Star turned to the mirror and blew a kiss to her reflection. “Maybe you guys can get Foley as the running back, if he’s all teen wolf like you think we can bench Vance’s slow ass. What do you think, cinnamon kiss lip gloss or arctic thunder?”

“...there’s a difference?”

“You’re lucky I don’t let Foley eat you for that comment,” she said, “but I’m in. If I held that geeks hand and he fleas or something then I want payback. Plus I’m still not sure why I remember what his feet feel like but I think that deserves some answers too.”

Visibly relieved to have her on his side, Kwan mapped out his plan for a trap before texting Tucker to meet them at the park around seven.

“You think Toni’ll care bout you leaving out tonight, I mean don’t wanna get you in trouble with your dads but I’m also seriously freaking out about this.”

“Kwan, I could have a full on orgy in surround sound and I doubt Toni would hear anything over those stupid cooking tournament shows she loves, besides, you’ve seen how much meat Foley puts away at lunch, if you’re right then I’m pretty sure we could blackmail him into eating my sister.”

“...”

“Shut up, I said what I said,” she said, deciding on sunshine strawberry as her gloss of choice for the day, “now lets go to the mall before you get us killed, baby needs a new jacket.”

“Aww you don’t have to buy me a new jacket, I think I’ve got a spare in my closet somewhere.”

Rolling her eyes, she walked over to the bed and picked Pedro up to carry him downstairs as they departed, her attitude no different than if he’d just asked her for help picking out an outfit, she was cool like that. “Haven’t you learned by now, I’m  _ always _ baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot to say about this chapter, even by my usual standards. Just continued setup and a little worldbuilding because there's not a lot on Star or her family which is a dynamic I love looking into. Also she and Kwan are super close in the show and I feel like not enough people appreciate them outside the a-listers as a whole or a ship. More action next time I promise, i just love overthinking when it comes to undisclosed families and character friendships.


	3. Into The Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The concluding chapter of the "Wolf Among Us" storyline focusing on Kwan and Star, both of whom are determined to get answers even if it kills them.

This had backfired spectacularly on both of them. Sure it had started off well enough, with Tucker being more than okay with Star tagging along while he tried to save Kwan from being shipped off to California, and they’d even started to have fun sometime during the session, regardless of Star saying otherwise. But that had all stopped when an alarm went of on Tucker’s phone, causing him to rush out of the library with the excuse of having to make a very important phone call.

“C’mon,” Star said, grabbing her bag and starting after him once a few seconds had passed, “get in gear.”

“I don’t know, isn’t eavesdropping kind of creepy?”

Looking at him incredulously, she rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him after her and their target.

Following Tucker out the back of the library into the wooded path, Kwan and Star carefully hid behind the trees as he made his way across the yard. Stopping for a bit to look back, once he was positive that he was alone Tucker pulled out his cell phone and started waving it around like he was searching for a signal. After a few more seconds of silence from the three of them,Star turned on Kwan.

“Ugh, who actually leaves to make a call,” she huffed, “I swear if I got dressed just to spend a night with you and Foley in a library you’re buying me lunch for a month.”

“Are you… actually hoping something goes wrong?”

Shrugging, Star pulled out her phone and switched the camera on the two of them. “Big money in monster action, big guy. Paulina’s been stalking Danny Phantom for months but ghosts are so blase in Amity Park it’s getting boring. But, if we get werewolf proof, then that’s hollywood style for us, smile!”

Flashing an awkward smile as she mashed their cheeks together for the grainy cell picture, Kwan stooped over and looked around the night continued to darken. It was getting close to fall so the wind had begun picking up, dropping the temperature from mild to chilly around them, so he was glad to have his letterman jacket, ruined as it was. As he ran his fingers across the slashes again, he found himself getting nervous about the situation despite Star’s insistence that they’d be fine. 

“Oh shit!”

Whipping his head around their hiding tree, Kwan realized that the reason she’d cursed was that Tucker had vanished. Looking around frantically, the two of them were close to panic when Kwan suddenly froze. Staring at them from across the yard were a pair of burning red eyes that seemed to paralyze him as they gradually got bigger, signaling that their bearer was getting closer. Without pause, he grabbed Star and clapped his hand over her mouth, turning her back towards the library while pressing her against him as he tried to be as still as possible. Seeing the panic in her eyes, he released her and made a shushing motion as he pointed to out the thing watching them from the shadows.The one good thing about having a cousin with a penchant for getting them into dumb situations is that he had become amazing at staying calm under pressure...and this thing was putting off a lot of pressure.

Following his lead, Star reached into her pocket and pulled out a small canister of mace that her dads had given her, unsure whether it would help but determined to put up a fight. Unlike the incident with the pirates a few months ago, there was no prep time, no specialized weapons, hell, not even scrawny Danny Fenton barking out orders on what to do next. God, she never thought she’d choose having that skinny dork with her in a fight over Kwan, but watching the thing with the red eyes currently staring them down she realized that was exactly what was happening.

“On the count of three, we break for it,” she began, exhaling slowly as she started to move, “one...  two…”

A lot of things happened between two and three. The first was a misstep, neither of them thought that a twig snapping could ever be so loud but in the silence of the night it sounded like thunder had erupted from the ground beneath them, locking them in place. Next came the rustling. If the the twig was the thunder, then the sound that came after it was a torrent of clanging scales sweeping through the plaza like a rainstorm barreling towards the two of them. Lastly there was a blur of black and white as a comet slammed into the charging beast and sent it tumbling into the treeline.

The good news, in Kwan’s opinion, is that it wasn’t a werewolf, which meant that Tucker wasn’t currently trying to peel the two of them like oranges. The bad news, on the other hand, was that the thing that was trying to kill them was  a lot worse. It’s body was marred and gouged in places, revealing muscle tissue and bones that should have made it agony for the thing to move, despite it proving otherwise. The easiest way to describe it was a giant snake with eyes running down the side of it’s body, each one moving independently as if searching for something that wouldn’t stay still. However, the longer they looked at it, the more they found wrong with it.

“Snakes...don’t have ears right?” Star said, watching in stunned fascination while the ghosts continued to fight.

“Forget the ears, man, look at that tail, no way do snakes grow hair.”

As they moved from their hiding spot to get a better view, the snake whipped its feathered tail at its opponent, sending Danny Phantom crashing down in front of them. Fortunately, he didn’t seem too bothered by their presence but Star knew Paulina would never forgive her if she was this close to her boytoy without snapping a picture, present danger be damned.

“Um, excuse me, Mr. Phantom, can we...uhh... get a picture?”

“Seriously?!” he and Kwan said in unison, both of them seeming to have the same idea of clearing the area while the snake was busy untangling itself.

“It’s just, my best friend is like, your biggest fan, and-”

As if offended by being ignored, the ghost snake rattled its body and charged the three of them, its jaw snapping in anticipation of a fleshy meal. With a startled cry, Danny threw up his hands, summoning a green dome of protective energy around him and the curious duo as the assailant began thrashing against the shield with the entirety of its body from all sides. With each rotation of the beast, Danny buckled more and more, the stress of keeping up his defense visibly exhausting him as Star and Kwan huddled together for safety. 

“Tucker!” Danny cried, tightening his shield as much as possible and pressing them all together and gritting his teeth. “Little help!”

Watching as the trees seemingly exploded, the wolf Kwan had seen earlier rocketed into the ghost and wrenched it’s jaws open, pressing the creature back by using its fangs as leverage. Once Danny had been given enough space to maneuver around, he dropped his shield and began panting as the wolf grabbed the snake’s tail and cracked it against a tree.

“Can’t you guys take a hint,” Danny barked at Kwan and Star, his face wet with sweat and his eyes flashing a brighter shade of green, ”get out of here!”

Not wanting to argue, they started to run back to the safety of the library, only to be for Star to pull Kwan into the shadows of the treeline once more. Shushing him and his wide eyed accusations, she rounded the tree and continued to watch the fight, more invested than ever since Phantom’s support had arrived. Now that is was two on one with no civilians to defend, the fight was going a lot smoother for him and the wolf, and  while the former was busy raining down rays of energy, the later was slashing wildly and keeping the snake quartered to a small group of trees away from where the public could accidentally walk into the fray.

“This was so worth a new jacket,” Star said, taking as many pictures as she could with her phone, “Brittany and Ashley are not even gonna believe this!”

“This is so not worth a passing grade.”

Kwan was feeling a strange mix of emotions. He was relieved that he was right and that there actually was a monster to pin the blame on, angry at being attacked yesterday after he had put on his nicest face, and terrified at the prospect of trying to be normal with Tucker after all of this was over. The werewolf thing was bad enough, and he’d have to warn Dash about any prospective bullying he had planned for him, but he was also apparently on a first name basis with Danny Phantom. Paulina had been the one to note that he had often showed up where Fenton and his friends were, but Kwan had no idea just how close they were. So lost in thought, Kwan didn’t notice a third figure enter into the battle.

“Holy-”

They couldn’t believe what they were seeing for a lot of reasons. The first of which was Foley himself, not the hulking mass of fur and fangs they’d assumed but the same basic nerd they saw at school everyday. Despite its protests, he was helping push the snake monster back into a clawed out section of reality that was oozing green light into the starry darkness that had crept around them. The atmosphere was also affecting them in weird ways, which was usual during ghost attacks but unlike the previous times when they’d been involved the effect was extremely pronounced. The air was several degrees colder than it had been a  few minutes ago, and everything sounded too distorted all of a sudden. Normally when the ghosts began fighting -normal in Amity Park was extremely subjective- everyone had the good sense to clear the area, but being this close to three ghosts (and Foley) trading blows was like drowning in air for them while the ordinary colors of the world seemed to shift, as if the laws of physics were finally taking a break in the presence of concentrated insanity. 

Despite the dizzying circumstances, Kwan and Star didn’t attempt to move from their hiding spot, determined to see the conclusion of his werewolf mystery through.

“Okay, “ she said, righting herself against a tree, “this is...weird, but on the brightside you didn’t get jumped by a nerd, right?”

Nodding his agreement, Kwan watched as Tucker and Danny finally shoved the snake’s snapping fangs through the rift and the wolf pulled it shut just as easily as it had opened it, a small bulge in the space signaling the new prisoner had given one last escape attempt before being sealed away. Looking at the three of them now, Kwan was amazed he’d even considered that Foley and the wolf were one and the same. The creature was large, easily towering over seven foot and dwarfing his two companions, and it wore a tattered green prison jumpsuit which helped increase its intimidation factor significantly. It was definitely a werewolf though, and as it sniffed around where the snake had been shunted through dimensions seconds ago, he was glad that the only thing it had taken from him had been a beret.

Dusting himself off, Phantom collapsed onto the ground, huffing from exhaustion. “Y’know,” he said, looking over to Tucker, “when I said ‘Tucker, help’ I didn’t mean, ‘hey Tucker, send Wulf and then wait  few seconds to jump in while we’re struggling.’”

“Hey,” he said, joining his friend on the ground, “you deal with angry snake monsters your way, and I’ll do it mine.”

“Your way was avoiding the snake!”

“And it was working!”

Everyone else was distracted -Danny and Tucker with their arguing, Star and Kwan with drinking in the oddness of Tucker Foley casually chatting with Amity Park’s most wanted man- so it came as a surprise to all of them when Wulf snatched the eavesdroppers up in his massive paws, a deep growl resonating through the plaza and making him the center of attention for the four.The two captives had enough composure not to scream at least, though whether it was out of fear for upsetting Wulf further or just because their brains had shut down and cancelled any response other than wide-eyed horror is up for debate.

“And now there’s this,” Tucker cursed, rushing over to the three of them, “hey, hey big guy, chill! Ĉi tiuj estas amikoj, bone?”

Cocking his head quizzically, Wulf looked from Star to Kwan and sniffed them individually, still growling slightly after giving them a once over.

“Jes, jes,” she began, nodding enthusiastically at both Wulf and Tucker, “ni estas liaj amikoj!”

“Whoa, she speaks esperanto?”

Apparently having been won over, Wulf dropped Kwan and brought Star in for a hug, licking her face with such vigor that her protests were quickly muffled before getting too loud. “Amiko!”

This was still a lot for Kwan to process, so after Wulf dropped him in favor of pampering Star, he took in the moment to finally scream. He was overloaded, he was tired and worst of all he was afraid. It wasn’t just the fact that the everyone except him was suddenly fluent in wolf gibberish, it just wasn’t that Foley was handling this all like it was just another Friday night for him down to being casual with Danny Phantom, it wasn’t even the fact that not even a minute ago he`d probably seen the fabric of reality get ripped apart and put back together (he was still processing that one to be honest), no, it wasn’t just one thing that broke him that night, it was everything. In fact, if he wasn’t sure that either of the two supernaturals on the scene would easily run him down, he probably would have made a beeline back home, distance a distant thought in his mind.

Dash had told them all about his adventure with Phantom last semester, about how they’d been shrunk down and chased through the Fenton’s lab by that a ghost hunter who was also a ghost but this didn’t have any of the fun Dash described in his recollection.  If anything his situation was closer to Valerie’s; thrown into a stupidly bizarre scenario that was more of a headache than necessary, and he didn’t get the benefit of at least getting ghost powers this time like when they were huddled up in the hospital.

Content that he’d made his concerns known, Kwan regained his composure and reached for his inhaler, an old habit from middle school when he would often have asthma attacks in stressful situations. Unable to find it, he fell to the ground, sufficiently done for with everything for the day.

“Here.”

Looking up, he saw Star holding out an worn inhaler to him, her hair a frizzled and makeup a frizzled mess from being smothered. “Sorry,” he said, taking the tube and giving it a quick puff while Danny and Tucker conversed from a distance, “this was…  a lot.”

“No, I get it,” she said, plopping down beside him on the grass, “you’ve been slashed and sleep deprived by a monster, plus I’m betting you’re still not trying to get shipped off by your folks. Smart money says that if you didn’t have that ‘iron bladder’ you and Baxter love talking about so much, you probably would have wet yourself five minutes ago.”

Star said it as a joke but Kwan knew she was probably right.

“I can’t believe all this happened because I failed a few-”

“A lot of”

“ _ A few  _ tests. I should’ve just asked you to tutor me in the first place, I don’t like lying to my mom but damn... it would have been a lot less of a headache, or hey, we should have just stayed in the library”

“Hmm, maybe,” she said, shuffling through her photo gallery, “but then I wouldn’t have gotten  **_this._ ** Paulina’s gonna flip!”

Turning to see what exactly it was she had gotten, Kwan couldn’t help but laugh. In the photo, Star was posing casually beside Danny Phantom, his hand hovering beside her waist and an unsure smile on his face like he was the nervous one of the pair. The picture also really accented just how inhuman Phantom was, with his eyes shining with a green intensity that served to highlight the near translucency of his skin compared to the solid black of a spandex jumpsuit he could only assume he’d died in. Even his hair refused to conform to normality, with several strands floating around his head in wisps as if being blown by wind no one else was affected by. 

Though he had calmed down, Kwan shivered, more from his thoughts than the September chill. “That guy’s kinda creepy once you get down to it.”

“Eh, he’s not so bad”

Flinching in surprise, Star and Kwan had almost forgotten about Tucker being outside with them until he spoke up, apparently having dismissed his inhuman accomplices for the evening.

“Of course you’d say that,” she said, turning on him with a scowl, “you spend all your time with Fenton and Manson. Besides, this is all your fault anyway.”

“Wha-” Tucker was insulted, “how is this my fault?!”

“Don’t act all innocent now, Foley, if you hadn’t sent your furry bodyguard back there after Kwan, neither of us would have been out here!”

“That’s not even  _ remotely _ what happened”

“Too be fair my first thought was that  _ you _ were the werewolf and were going to kill us all” Kwan cut it.

“That’s ridiculous,” Tucker began, attempting to lighten the mood, “I’m terrible at basketball, these hands are reserved for the keys.”

Star was in his face now, pressuring him into a confession. “So what did happen then, hmm?”

She was trying to unnerve him, playing into an aggressive role that actually suited her well when she needed it. Unfortunately, Tucker was loyal to a fault when it came to his friends, so try as she might he wouldn't break the way she wanted. He would, however, bend slightly for a pretty girl, and to help give them some peace of mind before things got too bad.

“Look, long story short: a few days ago someone broke an urn and that thing got out. W- I was chasing it trying to make sure it didn’t cause too much trouble, it had been sticking to the woods so I thought Wulf could help get it out our hair before it did anything to messed up. I got my beret knocked off the day before yesterday trying to catch it and since Kwan had it, I figure Wulf though Serpento had hijacked a body to ride back into town… sorry about your jacket though, dude.”

"And how do you know this… Wulf?”

“Not too many people speak esperanto around here, he was in the area so, ‘Mi parolis kaj li audis’… I guess. Since then he pops up from time to time and we hang out. Remember that ‘monster’ from the camping trip last year? Just Wulf sniffing around the woods.” A quarter-truth if there ever was one, and for a moment Tucker was worried they wouldn’t believe him.  

“God and I thought Fenton was the freak.” 

Nevermind, he thought, bemoaning the loss of what little reputation he had left, they totally bought it.

“Well, you two probably have a lot to discuss, so I’ll just be-”

“Not so fast.” Kwan said, grabbing him before he could turn away. Bracing himself for the physical portion of the interrogation, Tucker was surprised when Kwan instead brought him into a hug. “You totally helped save our skin just now, so we owe you and… we won’t tell anybody about Wulf or whatever weird else weird thing you do-”

“Excuse me?!” Star was scandalized.

“ **_IF_ ** ,“ he continued, a newfound resiliency in his voice resulting from a respect for Tucker he didn’t think he’d ever have, **_“_ ** you promise he won’t try to turn me into a deli platter again… and you can get me a passing grade, deal?”

“...I still get paid?”

“You still get paid.”

“Then deal.”

Having reached his weekly allotment of stressful moments, Kwan’s smile returned as he headed back into the library, determined to restore regularity to this night before it killed him. Star however, was not so easily content to move on from the events of the evening, staring down Tucker as if he had blood dripping off his hands -which coincidentally were still wearing the ghost gauntlets he’d used to help grab Serpento.

“This isn’t over, Foley, you’re in  _ my _ orbit now… Fenton and Manson too”

Flashing his best casual smile, whatever semblance of friendliness he was attempting was ruined by the shadow of Wulf looming over him in the streetlight, his invisibility making the figure all the more imposing.  As she turned to join Kwan back in the library, a disembodied voice raised its concerns about the situation.

“This is going to cause some problems, isn’t it?” Danny asked, reappearing beside Tucker once Star and Kwan were out of earshot.

“Nah,” he responded, unsure of his own sincerity, “I’m sure things’ll work out just fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for the set up, which is really all I wanted from these first few chapters, Kwan and Star are two of the "A-Listers" who I have a really strong interest in and I really had fun writing them. Him, the passive bully just going with the flow but proven to be a gentle sole who is still prone to freaking out when things get too much for him. Her, the smart and ambitious silver medal starlet of Casper High -she did a semesters work of homework in a night, that is impressive- who is determined to get what she wants one way or another but still cares about her friends for better or worse (a true friend keeps your inhaler even if you don't think you need it anymore and that's universal)... they're just a fun pair to look at. Tune in next time when we'll explore Paulina's semi-perfect life, thanks for reading.


End file.
